Boxee aims to beat Apple and Roku in the TV box game

Boxee, the company that once made headlines as a major contender in the set-top box wars, is bringing its newly launched Boxee TV device to Walmart, starting tomorrow. This is a big move for Boxee, as it will be granted a prominent spot in Walmart's brick and mortar stores, and will be up against competitors like the Apple TV and Roku's line of devices.

Apple TV offers premium content like Major League Baseball and the iTunes store, and Roku offers over 500 paid and free streaming channels, but the Boxee TV has a feature found on neither: the ability to actually tune in to local television. Walmart will set up displays in its stores showcasing the Boxee TV's access to free broadcast channels, such as ABC, CBS, NBC, and the CW, as well as its capacity to stream Internet content from Netflix, YouTube, and Vimeo. The device can also hook into unencrypted basic cable, removing the need for a separate digital cable box. "We don't believe the future of the TV is going to be a future filled with apps," Avner Ronen, Boxee's chief executive officer, told Bloomberg. "When you turn on the TV...you just want to watch something."

Boxee TV also sports two tuners, letting it simultaneously display one channel while recording another. The device then uploads those recordings to the cloud, where users receive unlimited storage for $15 a month, as well as the ability to view their recorded shows on any Internet connected device. However, over-the-air DVR service is limited to certain areas, including Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. More cities are planned for 2013.

The set-top box also comes equipped with a cheaper processor than its predecessor, the Boxee Box. It swaps out the previously used Intel chips for a Broadcom SoC, and includes a Linux-based operating system, both of which bring down the price. It won't be able to play as many types of video files as the discontinued Boxee Box, but the device is still a good value for the less tech-savvy who likely aren't concerned with exhaustive codec and container support.

Even though Roku boxes and Apple TVs are also available at Walmart, Boxee will have a leg-up with its over-the-air recording capabilities. It could face some problems, however, from content owners who are already reluctant to support streaming models and may find issues with Boxee's offerings. Additionally, Boxee's ability to connect directly to unencrypted cable is exactly the kind of thing that could be curtailed by a recent FCC ruling allowing the encryption of basic offerings. Boxee seems unconcerned about the ruling, though, and is confident that its products will be unaffected.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.